Elizabeth died of abdominal cancer.

William was raised in Blacklick Township, Cambria Co., Pa. He was a farmer by occupation. He was remembered by one relative as "the one that Froze." He and Elizabeth lived in Blacklick Twp., near Belsano, Pa.

His demise is detailed in the Indiana Evening Gazette on 3 Feb 1936:

Cambria Man Frozen to Death. Missing from his farm home between Belsano and Colver since last Thursday, William C. Farabaugh, 58-year-old-cattle dealer, was found frozen to death Saturday night along a lonely mountain trail about a mile from his home in Blacklick township, Cambria County. The gruesome find was made by a son, Leo Farabaugh, who had been searching for his father. Coroner Cyrus W. Davis of Cambria county said death had been caused by exposure and over-exertion. Mr. Farabaugh left his home last Thursday on a business mission to Colver. When he failed to return that night members of his family were not alarmed, since it was not unusual for him to remain away several days on such missions. However when he had not returned Saturday, his son made the five-mile trip to Colver through heavy drifts to inquire about his father. At Colver the young man was informed that Mr. Farabaugh had started home Thursday evening in the sub-zero blizzard. Alarmed, Leo Farabaugh started a search along the route he knew his father sometimes used in returning home - a trail cut over the mountain for the power line. At the farmhouse of Russell Shultz it was learned that Mr. Farabaugh had awakened members of the family about 11 o’clock Thursday night and sought admittance in the house. According to reports, Mr. Farabaugh was told “You better go on home.” About a half mile beyond the Shultz house the searcher came across evidence that someone had floundered in the snow and a short distance farther he came upon the body of his father. The discovery was made about 6 p.m. Saturday. Difficulty was experienced in removing the body to the Farabaugh home because of the heavy drifts, the farmhouse being almost completely isolated. William C. Farabaugh was born February 15, 1877, in Belsano, a son of Charles and Mathilda (Hines) Farabaugh, both deceased. He is survived by his widow, Mrs. Elizabeth (Hixson) Farabaugh, and these children: Harry Farabaugh of Colver, Walter of Ebensburg, R.D. 2, Mrs. James Winsel of Ebensburg, R. D. 2, Mrs. Clark Ross of Nanty-Glo, Mrs. Ralph Hoover of Ebensburg and Leo Farabaugh at home. Three brothers, Charles of Heilwood, Gust of Latrobe and Harry of Johnstown, and one sister, Mrs. John Glantey of Spangler, also survive. Funeral services will be held in his late home at 2 p. m. Tuesday.

When this article was discovered in 2014, the author published the following editorial at farabaugh.org: I have a few hard questions for the Russell Shultz family, which refused to help when William appeared at the farmhouse during that sub-zero blizzard in 1936. William misjudged the conditions and must have lacked enough warm clothing to endure the walk from Colver, so why turn him away? Neither family members were strangers to the area. William had lived there his entire life. In comparing the 1930 with the 1940 Census, we can see that Russell Shultz was established as a layout worker at the steel mill in Johnstown, with a wife Helen and a daughter Betty. On that night, Russell was 30 years old, and William was 58. Although the mystery of William’s fate is solved, the cold-hearted response of the Russell Shultz family is not. . .The snows from the Winter of 1936 are still within the memory of some of the local old timers. . . When the snows starting melting in March and were accompanied by three days of hard rain, the Johnstown Flood of 1936 resulted. . ..


William’s Death Certificate lists the cause: “Exposure probably due to over exertion, battling through storm to get home.” William was a farmer in Blacklick Township for 22 years at the time of death.